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Gene Frenette: Bright lights and big pity for a Jaguars team that looks like NFL's worst

Say this much for the Jaguars: When it comes to delivering a bad season, they do it up right.

You knew when coach Mike Mularkey’s frustration boiled over, after flinging his headset and play sheet to the ground in protest, that a year full of misery was destined to keep clinging to the Jaguars all of Thursday night. It’s a pitiful-looking team that can’t seem to catch a break or get out of its own way.

Another home game at EverBank Field, another listless performance against the Indianapolis Colts that now makes you wonder if the Jaguars can avoid finishing with the NFL’s worst record. They have no playmakers, no win in two months, and no foreseeable light at the end of the tunnel.

Just when you thought this pathetic season couldn’t sink any lower, the Jaguars managed to do that with an assortment of untimely penalties, offensive ineptitude, terrible discipline and plain bad luck.

The Colts jumped out to a 17-0 lead with the benefit of winning two coaching challenges. One turned a Laurent Robinson catch into a fumble, the other nullified a 30-yard catch by Cecil Shorts to kill a drive.

As much booing as those correct reviews elicited from 63,272 paying customers, a normally calm Mularkey losing his temper when Luck was awarded a touchdown on a 1-yard, fourth-down sneak in the second quarter typified a long, disgraceful night.

Nothing went right for the home team. Mularkey’s outburst was the second of six major penalties, most of which were the result of a team that saw its composure unravel in far greater abundance than the Jaguars had all season.

“That’s not going to be who we are. No way are we going to be that way,” said Mularkey. “The one thing we will not do and that’s what took place with some of those personal fouls. We will be a smart, physical team, but we will not be that team that’s going to have personal fouls. It’ll stop.”

What the Jaguars couldn’t make stop is the madness of a season filled with flawed execution. A Blaine Gabbert-led offense, at least until he exited with a hurt left shoulder, went 1-for-10 on third down and couldn’t find the end zone.

A Terrance Knighton roughing-the-passer penalty killed an Aaron Ross interception. Shorts had what looked like a spectacular one-hand catch near the left sideline overturned for not possessing the ball through the ground. The Jaguars’ top two draft picks, Justin Blackmon and Andre Branch, each picked up ridiculous personal foul penalties.

If you’re scoring at home, the Jaguars had 10 penalties for 115 yards, including the Mularkey yellow flag for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“The frustration was probably there, but we have to be better than that,” said cornerback Rashean Mathis, who was sidelined by a groin injury.

While all those penaties and overturned calls were momentum-killers, they certainly weren’t game-changers. The Jaguars (1-8) have simply forgotten how to win games. And it’s a lot more complicated than just not having franchise back Maurice Jones-Drew in the lineup to torture his AFC South rival.

In more ways than one, this team has lost its mojo. The Jaguars produced all of three points when Gabbert was in the game. A rapidly declining defense can never seem to get a stop when it really matters.

The Jaguars, outscored 153-44 in five home games, just keep finding a new level of rock bottom. We’re still two weeks from Thanksgiving and all hope is gone.

Mularkey’s team did more than lose its cool Thursday night. They have lost this season.